I administer a windows network, the ftp server is running on w2k3 small business server. some of my users can not get access to the ftp site, the connection is timing out, however some are able to connect, it looks like it is not a setting issue or OS issue, the clients in my network are w2k and wxp. the clients having connection issues are spread accross the spectrum. Did anybody come accross this problem or have an idea of what it could be? thanks for helping.

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do the users who are unable to connect have VPN software installed that includes a firewall ? The Cisco Client we use has an embedded firewall that is always on and will prevent them from connecting to services such as FTP.

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Have you looked at the event logs to see if there are any records of what has happened?
Is the ftp server set to allow anonymous login?
Is it always the same set of users/computers that have the connection problem? Or are good and failed connection attempts made from all systems?
Have you looked at a failed connection attempt on a sniffer? (Sniffers can be your best friend)
Bob

the event log reads " could not log the client, it timed out".
the ftp is not set up for anonymous connection, actually the client is prompted for username and password, which he provides, then it reads "getting folder contents" then it times out. I haven't tried a sniffer, by the way wich one would you recommend? thanks for your input.

Ok - the fact that this is windows authentication, AND that authentication has already taken place is a great help.
1) For sniffers, you can't beat ethereal - since it's free (Also needs winpcap to function). Go to ethereal.com and get the downloads. Only caution is to use a hub, or get a SPAN port on a cisco (or other) switch so that you can see the entire data stream.
2) I'd suggest checking the (assumed here) NTFS security permissions for the folders.
3) You didn't specify whether or not it's the same users who are having the problems or not. If it's the same individuals (same logons too), then I'd look at NTFS permissions.
4) Also - since Windows authentication - are they all going to the same directory? Or to individual directories?
Bob

thanks for your inputs. let me give some more insight of the issue. To access the public folder on the ftp site we use a generic username & password ( I mean anybody can use it to access the public folder ). For protected folders the folder's owner only have the username and password for this specific folder. Actually the user experiencing the login problem happens to be using the generic username/password. However the same user with the same credentials on another station was able to login in. This suggest taht the problem could be related to his own winxp station. But my problem is what on the machine can cause such behavior. Other users (a few)also experience the same problem. I checked the services and they are running as they should. Thanks for the sniffer recommendation.

Try also looking at your Anti Virus software.
Some like Trend Micro, may have a built in firewall.
If so you will have to open the ports here also.
The problem describes that you are getting through on out bound traffice as you get the login option, but may not be getting inbound traffic.
Check those NICs'.

Thanks to all of you who are posting to help out with this issue.
All the stations are in the same subnet.
the ftp server is running on IIS. I am pretty sure restriction of number of connection is not the issue, the restriction being set to 100,000. we are a mid-size company.
users having problems are running winxp sp1 not sp2 (mostly) , and one is running win2k sp3.
all users get on the ftp site using IE browser.
talking about blocked ports, I would say that all other users use the same exit (Default Gateway) to access to the same ftp site, if the firewall was a reason it would affect all users, which is not the case. I do not use trend micro. the antivirus is the same on all machines.
I will check the NIC and keep you posted.
thanks to all of you.

Thanks to all of you it turns out that users that have connection problems had their ftp config set to passive, once I changed it to active as suggested Vinceke, it worked out. thanks to all of you for your great contribution.

And - I'm NOT kidding, a big thank you to YOU senomango for keeping all of us in the loop. You taking the effort to communicate back and forth with all of us on this issue made it particularly rewarding for us, since we got feedback on what the issue(s) were.
So many times, we (as a group) put out suggestions, and never hear another word.
You're the kind of person whom it is a pleasure to work with.
Bob

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